I think it’s sad people are dieing in psych hospitals. I think there should at least be separate wards for people severally suicidal and those who aren’t. This one size fits all policy is creating very sterile wards with no therapeutic benefit whatsoever.
A ward where the rules prevent you doing almost anything including personal care is unhelpful. I struggle to sit in a room with nothing to do. I get very depressed. I was fortunate to order in some jigsaw puzzles and a Bible. Some are a lot less fortunate than that.
People who are suicidal need more emotional support. I never see that on the ward. Staff are too busy. I spent 4.5 months in a hospital and only built a relationship with one member of staff. Though we rarely got to talk. They were often on level 3 observations or getting phones.
Most of the staff were agency. So most days it was full of different staff who no one knew. Many agency staff came from far distances. It also changed their attitude to the ward. They were more like psychiatric mercenaries. They didn’t care too much as they won’t be in tomorrow.